No, cultural conservatives 'have not yet begun to fight.' The question is whether we ever will.
Another David French article from the National Review says that "Cultural Conservatives Have Not Yet Begun To Fight."
I quite agree with him (as would Luther; God is, after all, the Ruler of the Kingdom of the Left Hand,, too), and have an obligation to stand up for what is just and right even in the public arena, and even when it falls into the realm of reason rather than faith. We should fight. We have an obligation especially when the State crosses the line and begins to dictate to our consciences to utterly refuse to render unto Caesar the things that are God's.
But regrettably, there is another sense in which we cultural conservatives have not yet begun to fight. How many of us are using Firefox and/or Thunderbird? How many of us attend Disney films (the House of the Mouse cut off support from the Boy Scouts a while back because they insisted on applying sexual behavior to the category "morally straight" in dealing with appropriate conduct for Scouts). When the NFL threatened to move the last Super Bowl of Arizona's governor had signed what amounted to nothing more than a state version of the Federal law on religious freedom that passed virtually without dissent and was signed without demur by Bill Clinton, how many of us would have been prepared to give up a favorite fall and winter pastime and boycott the NFL?
When a state court forces a Christian to violate his or her conscience in the name of non-discrimination over what is, after all, a matter of behavior rather than ontological identity, how many organizations would be willing to boycott that state when it comes to conventions, business dealings, and so forth? The Left is willing to walk the walk when it comes to fighting the culture war. We are barely willing to talk the talk.
Where is the outrage when Rahm Emanuel refuses to allow Chik-fil-A to open a restaurant in Chicago because owner Dan Cathy contributed to anti-marriage definition causes? Lesbians denied a "wedding" cake they could readily have obtained elsewhere are willing to sue the baker whose conscience- rightly or wrongly- will not allow him to sell them one. Why are Christian businessmen unwilling to sue over outrages like Mayor Emanuel's abuse of power in the Chik-fil-A case?
No, cultural conservatives have not yet begun to fight. We have not been willing to stand up to the bullying, to the routine slander of our motives, to the exclusion of our arguments and our viewpoint from what passes for debate over the rash abandonment of legal and moral principles that are millennia old.
I think the question we need to ask is whether we ever are going to begin to fight- because Mr. French is right.
So far, we haven't.
And I wonder whether we ever will.
I quite agree with him (as would Luther; God is, after all, the Ruler of the Kingdom of the Left Hand,, too), and have an obligation to stand up for what is just and right even in the public arena, and even when it falls into the realm of reason rather than faith. We should fight. We have an obligation especially when the State crosses the line and begins to dictate to our consciences to utterly refuse to render unto Caesar the things that are God's.
But regrettably, there is another sense in which we cultural conservatives have not yet begun to fight. How many of us are using Firefox and/or Thunderbird? How many of us attend Disney films (the House of the Mouse cut off support from the Boy Scouts a while back because they insisted on applying sexual behavior to the category "morally straight" in dealing with appropriate conduct for Scouts). When the NFL threatened to move the last Super Bowl of Arizona's governor had signed what amounted to nothing more than a state version of the Federal law on religious freedom that passed virtually without dissent and was signed without demur by Bill Clinton, how many of us would have been prepared to give up a favorite fall and winter pastime and boycott the NFL?
When a state court forces a Christian to violate his or her conscience in the name of non-discrimination over what is, after all, a matter of behavior rather than ontological identity, how many organizations would be willing to boycott that state when it comes to conventions, business dealings, and so forth? The Left is willing to walk the walk when it comes to fighting the culture war. We are barely willing to talk the talk.
Where is the outrage when Rahm Emanuel refuses to allow Chik-fil-A to open a restaurant in Chicago because owner Dan Cathy contributed to anti-marriage definition causes? Lesbians denied a "wedding" cake they could readily have obtained elsewhere are willing to sue the baker whose conscience- rightly or wrongly- will not allow him to sell them one. Why are Christian businessmen unwilling to sue over outrages like Mayor Emanuel's abuse of power in the Chik-fil-A case?
No, cultural conservatives have not yet begun to fight. We have not been willing to stand up to the bullying, to the routine slander of our motives, to the exclusion of our arguments and our viewpoint from what passes for debate over the rash abandonment of legal and moral principles that are millennia old.
I think the question we need to ask is whether we ever are going to begin to fight- because Mr. French is right.
So far, we haven't.
And I wonder whether we ever will.
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